circle verb▶ circle a game (of a bookmaker) to limit the amount that may be bet on a given game or race when the bookmaker suspects that the game or race is fixed US
— Burgess Laughlin, JobOpportunitiesintheBlackMarket, p. 5, 1978
▶ circle the drain
to be near death US
— LosAngelesTimes, p. B1, 19 December 1994
by extension, said of a project or enterprise that is nearing collapse US
— Vann Wesson, GenerationXFieldGuideandLexicon, p. 38, 1997